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It’s actually common that cars break down. This is not being overly negative or pessimistic, but it can happen for several reasons. Some may have nothing to do with recklessness or negligence on your part. Perhaps you keep your vehicle well serviced and treat it well then out of the blues when you least expect it, the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. It then hits you that you need roadside assistance. It is therefore good to be prepared for such adversities. One smart way to get prepared is to first know the most common reasons why cars break down in the first place.

Keys are locked inside

Even the most diligent car owner can make a mistake and forget keys inside the car. This can of course, be embarrassing and annoying. Your best bet is such a situation would be to find a reliable towing solution. You may not end up with a towed car though because most towing companies also offer lockout services.

Overheating

Older vehicles experience this problem a lot. It is mostly because of tubing problems and several wear and tear factors. Newer vehicles also experience overheating problems although not as often as the aforementioned older vehicles. For newer vehicles, overheating occurs when one forgets to refill oil or put a new coolant when one is supposed to. The end result is a car breaking down in the middle of a road trip. You certainly will have to keep in touch with a towing company. To avoid such inconveniences, take your car for servicing as often as possible especially during summer when overheating issues are common.

Tire trouble

Flat tires and blowouts – they can happen to anyone. They happen when tires are old, when one runs over a sharp object or when alignment is faulty. It is easy to assume you will never have to request for towing services because of a flat tire or a blowout. But what do you do when the spare also gets a puncture or blows out? The solution here is to take preventive measures into account. Start by changing tires every time they wear out. Rotate them too every season so as to decrease chances of a blowout. Then always have at least two spare tires especially if you plan to go for a long road trip.

Dead battery

The battery could be old, dirty or substandard. It could also be that the connections are off or maybe you accidentally left the car running for hours. Whatever the reason, a dysfunctional battery will force you to seek towing services. There is sometimes nothing you can do. You may have tried to jump start the car or any other trick up your sleeve but the car still refuses to start. This does not mean though that you should never carry your starter cables with you. Keep them in the trunk with spare tires. You never know when they will come in handy.

Starter motor issues

Car starter issues are pretty much like punctures. You can experience them even with a well serviced car. Unfortunately with starter motor glitches, there is little you can do to fix the problem. Your best bet is to have a reliable towing service on your speed dial and ask for assistance.

You cannot foretell towing needs so it pays to be prepared!

Most towing and road assistance service providers offer their services 24/7. This is certainly a good thing. But it sometimes mean paying more for the same services if and when one needs help at night over the weekend. However, as mentioned, we cannot foresee a towing incident and therefore, it’s always in your advantage to stay prepared in case an unexpected incident crops up.

No one loves having their car towed. But accidents are bound to happen. Your car can break down when you least expect and you have no choice but to call a roadside assistance service provider. Things get thick and turn to worse if your somewhere end up with your car stuck in a snow bank or in a ditch. All these frustrations may seem farfetched if you have never experienced them. But become a car owner for a long time and your certainly will experience such setbacks. You may swerve to avoid colliding with another motorist, slide off a slick and wet road or brake suddenly and end up in a ditch.

These are just but some common examples that always call for car towing services to help you retrieve your car. It is where the concept of winching comes into the picture. So what is it and how does it work? Why should you know anything about it? Read on to learn more.

What is winching?

Winching is simply a way of retrieving a stuck car. Most well equipped roadside assistance service providers use the technique mostly because it is fast and effective. It may be a little bit costly sometimes especially when the weather is not so good or where a car is stuck in a tricky terrain. Either way, it saves time and helps you retrieve your car.

What does winching involve?

The whole process involves pulling a car from a tricky or rather hard to access area. To achieve this, a steady cable and a motorized axle are used. A roadside assistance expert simply hooks a heavy duty auto tow cable to a stable part on your car’s undercarriage. The cable may be hooked on different places on your car’s undercarriage depending on a number of factors like how accessible the undercarriage is. Once the car is firmly secured to the heavy duty cable, an electric or hydraulic motor pulls the cable gently towards the truck to safely pull your car off a snow bank or ditch.

When is winching appropriate?

Like already hinted, winching is appropriate when a car is stuck in a hard to access area. But it may also be appropriate where other methods of auto recovery and roadside assistance are hard to execute, unsafe or fail. It should however be noted that most wrecker services often use conventional towing and auto recovery methods before resorting to winching. That is mostly because setting up the wincing equipment is taxing in terms of labor and time. The actual winching process is however, fast and safe.

Winching alternatives

There are of course, winching alternatives with extrication being the most common one. The two methods are ideal for extreme situations where common and simple auto recovery methods may not work. Take extrication for instance. It comes in handy where a vehicle has been involved in an accident and the accident scene needs to be protected. It prevents a risk of another collision by marking out the scene with cone. Like most car towing experts will you however, winching and extrication can still be used together to retrieve a stuck vehicle and to prevent further damage.

Precautions that you can take

While it may be impossible to prevent instances that often lead to the need for winching, it is prudent to note that one can take measures to minimize instances of ending up with a problematic car. Ensure your car is serviced from time to time. Ensure too that you change your tires as often as required. Then if you have to drive at night or under foggy conditions, avoid speed and turn your fog lights on. As long as you take precautions, it’s safe to say that you will greatly reduce the possibility of needing winching.

You are meeting a friend in a popular restaurant situated downtown Toronto. You drive around and feel it’s your lucky day to get a parking spot near your meeting destination. You pay the required parking fee and off you go to your meeting. Unfortunately when you come back to get your vehicle, it is nowhere to be found. The problem is that you had not anticipated how long you would be out there with your friend. The good food, conversation and wine simply made you forget all about the car. And before you realize it, the parking meter had run out several hours ago.

Why pay for parking?

One thing you should not be so sure of is the parking attendee writing you a ticket once the parking meter runs out. In Toronto, just like in many other cities around Canada, parking is very limited considering the dense population. Paying for parking in these cities maintains their health and makes certain that each person gets an equal chance at a parking spot. If everyone were to leave their vehicles parked in a restaurant parking lot overnight, then there wouldn’t be space newer, incoming visitors. This being the case, the next time you get a little anxious about getting a parking ticket or having to pay for parking, simply remember that you are being unselfish and an honorable citizen.

Have you over-extended your parking hours?

If for one reason or another you overextend your allowed parking duration, the parking attendees are forced to call any of the reputable towing companies in Toronto to have your car towed to another parking lot, or even impounded. To get you car back, you will have to pay the consequent towing charges plus other applicable relevant fees.

When you go to your parking spot only to find that your vehicle is no longer there, the first step is to call the local police department. Make certain to identify that this is not an emergency, but simply a call to help locate where your car was towed to. They should be able to give you the whereabouts on which towing company was called, and where your car might be. In some instance, once you have talked to the towing company, you will discover your car was moved to another parking spot in Toronto. Perhaps it was moved there since the spot doesn’t require payment. In this case, you will only require paying the towing fee to get back your vehicle.

Is your vehicle impounded?

Having your vehicle impounded is quite inconveniencing, in fact, it is a perfect way to ruin your day. However, it still needs to be dealt with. In Toronto, to have your car impounded means you had committed more traffic offenses than a simple parking violation. These include having multiple traffic fines left unpaid, driving violations, being suspected of serious crime, and much more. It is much more serious and hence attracts higher charges to have the car released back to you.

Similar to when you get pulled over by the police, you will be asked to show some identification papers, for instance your driver’s license, registration papers, proof of insurance and much more, to get back your car.

While the process is daunting, and requires dealing with legal and extra expense issues, it is important to act as quickly as possible in these situations. Note that if you allow your car to remain in the impound lot, you risk losing it since all cars that have stayed here for specific length of time are auctioned. This is normally done to keep the lots open and available for other vehicles that need to be towed in. Since impound lots around the city in most cases have long lines of stressed car owners, it pays to be patient with the lot attendees and other people helping you to get back your car.

You are driving comfortably along the highway peacefully when your truck starts acting up and slows to a halt. You try starting the engine but it is not responding. The truck needs to be parked on the side of the road as traffic is slowly building up. You try starting the engine again, and you are in the luck, it gets started. Unfortunately, it gives you only time to park by the road side, when it suddenly stops again. What could be the problem, you ask yourself. This is certainly not a great way to start a Friday morning.

What’s your solution?

While experiencing a mechanical problem on a busy highway is not something you would ever wish for yourself, not even for your worst enemy, it can still happen when least expected. After all, your truck is just like any other machine, and hence is apt to get mechanical issues once in a while. However, the incidence doesn’t have to ruin your whole day or even your whole weekend. Contacting the right towing services in Toronto can make all the differences in scenarios like this.

There are several solutions that can be opted for when it comes to stalled trucks. Depending on the severity of your conditions, the towing firm might be able to make a quick fix on the spot, without even needing to tow the truck. For instance, probably your truck requires being jump started with cables. Or it is just a flat tire that they can assist to change.

Heavy truck towing process

Where the issues are more than what the towing technicians could handle, the truck needs to be towed where it can be professionally fixed. If your stalled truck cannot be started, it will be either towed back to the tow shop if they are conversant with your truck repair problems or to the nearest mechanic shop. A skilled towing technician can be able to get your truck hooked up and ready to be towed in less than one minute. To accomplish this, the right tools need to be used. Wheel and tire lifts are utilized along with brackets that are used to wrap around the front driving wheels. The towing vehicle utilizes hydraulics, which uses cylinders and fluids to supply the force to lift your truck.

Vehicle towing service providers are responsible for retrieving all types of stalled vehicles along the highways, roads or even remote areas around the country. Whether stalled in the snow or in the mud, a professional towing service provider can be able to get to his or her clients quickly and get them out of any kind of mess they happen to be in.

Preventative and repair services offered by some local towing services

Some heavy towing services around Toronto have the capacity to not only tow stalled vehicles, but also to diagnose and repair specific issues once they are towed at their shop. Some of the basic preventative and repair services offered by these towing companies include:

• Repairing faulty brakes

• Replacing tires

• Fuel filters replacements

• Wheel alignments

• Air filter replacements

• Oil changes

By taking care of preventative services such as replacing brake pads, tires, oil changes, and the likes, your towing service provider is helping save money, effort, time and anguish of having to ever get your truck towed. So you might as well ask your towing technician to take a look at the rest of your truck or vehicle as well to see where other maintenance might be required. After all, being proactive where your truck maintenance is concerned is always advisable than just being active as it can help to avoid stressful times stranded on the side of a busy highway, or on any other road surface for that matter.